Tze Yong out to settle a score with Seng Zoe in National Juniors

PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Ng Tze Yong will be out to settle a score with Yeoh Seng Zoe in the final of the National Junior Championships in Sabah.

Tze Yong, 18, reached his fourth straight final of the Under-21 meet yesterday after battling to a 16-21, 21-13, 21-11 win over Faiz Rozain of Terengganu.

And former national team trainee Seng Zoe, 21, overcame Sabah’s Datul Mohd Shah Eizlan Sardik in a similar fashion, winning 13-21, 21-17, 21-16 to set up a repeat of the first leg final in Penang in March.

Tze Yong went down tamely 16-21, 16-21 in their first encounter, but believes he will take on Seng Zoe this time as a much-improved player than he was nine months ago.

Tze Yong is still buoyed by his decent World Junior Championships outing in Canada last month, where he defeated second seed Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay of Indonesia en route to the quarter-finals.

He also notched an impressive win over Asian Junior champion Lakhsya Sen of India to help Malaysia finished fifth in the team event.

Despite being the top seed, Tze Yong conceded that the more-experienced Seng Zoe will again start as the favourite.

“I’m looking forward to meet Seng Zoe in our second match and anticipating another tough match against him,” said Tze Yong.

“Being three years older, experience is certainly on his side. But I have improved too over the last few months.

“I always learned from each defeat and try to come back stronger.

“I did it against Ikhsan (whom he lost to at the Asian Junior Championships) during the world juniors and I hope to do the same against Seng Zoe.

“Winning this tournament is important because I have just joined the senior team on probation. So, I think winning this title would carry some weight for the assessment.”

Tze Yong also made it to two finals last year. He lost to Leong Jun Hao in the first leg in Penang but made amends later by pipping Chia Wei Jie to win the Pahang leg.